Bharti Airtel new smartphone TV service

Bharti Airtel is launching Pocket TV, a direct-to-phone TV service, this week. Bharti, India’s largest telco, says it will offer live content from more than 150 TV channels.

The service will go live on Google Play this week and on iOS phones next month. The service is restricted to existing subscribers of Bharti’s Airtel DTH service, and they’ll have to pay an additional R60 a month ($1), plus data charges.

However, owners of rival mobiler services will also be able to view the services provided they also subscribe to Airtel’s DTH services which means that the likes of Vodafone and Idea subscribers can also watch the signals.

Essel Groups’s Dish TV and TataSky are already providing similar services. Smartphone sales are booming in India with growth last year of 181 per cent.